Cross country: Locals secure spot at state with regional runs

Silver Creek sweeps 4A Region 4 competition

Peak to Peak's Anna Schults helped the Pumas to a regional title in Lyons on Thursday. (Brad Cochi / BoCoPreps.com)

LYONS — The Class 2A boys cross country state championship could turn out to be a battle between the Lyons and Heritage Christian teams.

Those two groups know that as well as anyone, and being in the same league and region, they've been sizing one another up all season. At the 2A Region 1 meet at Lyons High School on Thursday, neither team tipped its hand while Heritage Christian won the regional title and the Lyons Lions finished runners-up just eight points behind.

For Lyons sophomore Isaac Roberts, who claimed the individual title with a time of 17 minutes, 3 seconds, Thursday's was just the first towards a larger goal.

"We were just trying to run to qualify, so it was pretty good," Roberts said. "We run the course here on easy days and we've had a couple meets here already, and I think it helps a little bit because you know where the hills are and where you can make a push. We got second today but it's all about next week at state."

With the top four teams and the top 15 individual placers out of each region qualifying for the state meet, Roberts and his teammates qualified easily on their home course, where older brother Paul Roberts still holds the course record. Twin Peaks Charter also qualified a team on the boys side, while the 2A Region 1 girls team competition saw Nederland take first place, Shining Mountain finish second and Lyons taking third. Nederland's Helen Cross won the girls individual championship with a time of 19:34.

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If the Lyons boys weren't attacking the Thursday's regional with the utmost competitiveness, that certainly wasn't the approach for the defending state champion Peak to Peak girls in the 3A Region 3 race. Led by Quinn McConnell's individual title in 18:05, the Pumas swept the top three places and won the team title by 26 points over second-place Holy Family.

"We always want to state confident in ourselves and so we wanted to try our best in this race because it's so close to state," said Peak to Peak's Anna Shults, who placed second. "We pretty much ran how we expected — in a front pack. We hope to stay strong and pack up for state, too."

Holy Family's Kyle McCabe won the 3A Region 3 boys race in 16:42, leading the Tigers to a third-place team finish behind runner-up Peak to Peak and ahead of fourth-place Jefferson Academy.

In 4A, Silver Creek won both the Region 4 girls and boys titles with Logan Simington edging teammate Brock Dykema by one second to win the boys race in 16:14. Mead also qualified its boys team for state.

Isaac Roberts of Lyons heads toward the finish line while winning the Class 2A Region 1 individual title in Lyons on Thursday. (Brad Cochi / BoCoPreps.com)

The Centaurus boys won the 4A Region 3 team title, finishing seven points ahead of runner-up Niwot. Centaurus and Niwot also both qualified their girls teams for state, with Niwot's Taylor James winning the 4A Region 3 individual championship with a time of 19:16.

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